The Setup

The Setup

I love this site; not only does it have some major geek heroes on display, the web design is gorgeous. I love the horizontal picture ribbons for each interview, I love the content of each article. It is simply amazing the exact specs of the machines that most of these people use everyday and the awesome quality of their work.

Very inspirational. Now it is time for me to get to work on something tangible and stop wasting time with TV and random web sites!

A Geek's Clock

ThinkGeek sent me their monthly love-gram via email today, and in addition to their usual array of awesome geek toys, was this:

Moshi Voice Activated Clock

Check it out in action!

Publishers, Please Evolve (or don't)

It is amazing to me, how divisive eReaders have become - I just don't see the controversy. If publishers are dissatisfied with their margins for books sold in the eReader market, the simplest solution is to find a way to sell higher volumes. Profits for eReader content increase far faster per unit than equivalent print units. It costs nothing to produce units #2 through #1,000,000 electronically. Even at a theoretical dollar per unit cost of print media, that's $1,000,000 of lost profit in manufacturing and shipping.

Don't be underhanded in how you sell your products or your consumers have the power to react in a manner detrimental to your business. Deal with the modern realities of social media and electronic distribution or lose your bottom line. It really is that simple.

"I speak from pained experience as an author when I say that we have absolutely no say on when our books are released, in what format and at what price."

Delayed electronic edition

Where I disagree with the author's comments from his blog entry posted above, is that he does have a choice, he just lacks the strength to enforce it. Employ pressure on your publisher to treat customers with the respect they deserve. Disseminate your work on all platforms at once, let the reader decide how they want to consume it; you work has value, people will pay for it, we readers want to read. We will pay dealers for the crack we desire. It is your work, you are in control, publishers don't exist without YOU.

Last night, I was amazed at the new trends I was seeing. No less than three authors were now self publishing through their own websites, selling books for $9.95 in pdf format directly from author to consumer. That is liberating. You are being paid directly, earning the vast majority of the cover price as income and your profits will scale with the quality and consistency of your work. Now that is empowerment. Publishers, take note.

Direct purchase from authors:

• The Simple Guide to a Minimalist Life
• Zen To Done
• The Essential Motivation Handbook
• Zen Habits Handbook for Life

Becoming a Minimalist

This is a topic I've committed myself to for a week now (informally) and since I've decided to strive for this path, I've found a few websites with some helpful information:

http://www.becomingminimalist.com/
http://mnmal.tumblr.com/
http://minimalmac.com/
http://simpledesks.tumblr.com/

I'm finding it easy to convert my computers, installed software, workspaces, and design but having a much more difficult time changing my life. Despite that, I am finding myself a lot more productive around the house and have a much happier wife with the small changes I've managed so far.

Ted Talks: Gamers can save the world!

A truly inspiring and very astute look at gamers and the gaming mentality.

TED Talks: Manspaces

A fun look at man's getaways:

Predators <-- franchise reboot

http://www.predators-movie.com/

Robert Rodriguez will do this right, I have confidence in him.




Predators

Google TV follow-up

A follow up relating to my previous blog post:

Google TV Should Finally Push Apple TV Beyond A “Hobby”

Google TV

F I N A L L Y.

Google and Partners Seek Foothold in the Living Room - NYTimes.com

At least, I think so.

Meaning: when this was 'announced', my immediate thought was that AppleTV will finally get a swift kick in the ass to implement some new features and finally develop as a platform, less as a hobby. I have said for so long that AppleTV was poised to be the next big thing. Apple has not prioritized it properly, placing it on the back burner while they addressed iPhone (which was important) and now the iPad (which isn't).

Enter Google; Apple's new worst enemy. If Google enters the market, and aims at one thing: getting media to the TV, both from within the household:

Ripped CDs

'backed-up' DVDs

Digital photos

and maybe more importantly, from without:

Movie streaming from NetFlix, Apple, Amazon

Online videos from YouTube, Hulu, etc.

Music streaming from Pandora, Last.fm, etc

Download audio and video podcasts (ok, maybe more for people like me)

But most importantly, and THIS is the kicker: IP TV. (network distributed TV, think YouTube but for actual broadcast shows and movies)

Set top boxes will live and die by this point. My wife, my parents and everyone like them want TV. Often, they don't care where the content comes from, how it gets there, or how cool the technology is. They just want to watch TV. This means, no changing input sources on their TV, nothing more complex than plugging in a coax or ethernet cable to the box and HDMI to the TV.

If you make them switch inputs for live TV, this and all devices like it, will die on the vine. But there is the inherent problem with these new integrated, media devices.

Google already has the hardware and software knowledge to manufacture this device. The problem is, and always will be the installed base of content providers and content brokers. Within this light, Comcast's purchase of NBC was masterful. Pure genius. They have defended their position as both a provider and a broker and no one noticed. But I digress.

It is this simple: make it so people can subscribe for TV channels for yearly fees directly from providers (even through current brokers) a-la-cart. Then, subscribers could create a TiVo-like "Season Pass" for shows they want. Make it cost whatever is reasonable (the price will be influenced by all the usual market forces) and I don't care if you embed commercials or not.

There are exciting times in an otherwise stagnant industry, ahead.

Optical Scanning of Books

Check this out, it looks amazing. Since I am in the software industry, and I know how difficult this is to implement, I'm amazed at how well done this is.

Google's Philosophy

Corporate Information - Our Philosophy

A very interesting read, worth the time to see what Google's founders envision for their company and its products. Nobody can argue that Google is bringing a very different approach to computing, I love their products but it can be scary how much data they have in their hands.

I keep trying to decide if that is good or not. It is certainly convenient to have virtually all your data in one place, in the cloud, but is it smart?

Currently, I think so. At present, I am using many of Google's services:

• Google Search
• GMail (w/Tasks)
• Google Reader
• Google Docs
• Google Calendar
• Picasa and Picasa Web Albums
• Blogger
• Buzz
• Google Voice
• Google Wave

There are certainly replacements available for all of these but none are as convenient or cost effective. I just have to decide how much data I want in one place.

Happy Meal is ageless: no decay in a year

Happy Meal is ageless: no decay in a year on a shelf - Boing Boing

Ya, I'd say they bake in enough preservatives, don't you? That stuff HAS to build up in your system, and it can't bode well for long-term health.

This is seriously scary.

The End of Publishing

Stick with this to the end, it is extremely well done.

New England Patriots' Ty Warren skips bonus to work on degree - ESPN Boston

Ty Warren thinks long term

Ty Warren is one example of the types of players the Patriots pride themselves in calling one of their own. I wish we had more of them.

15 Noteworthy Websites That Changed the Internet | Web 2.0

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/15-noteworthy-websites-that-changed-the-internet/

I would amend this list; as far as I know, Slashdot.org was the first “news portal” that I ever used. I suspect that is very true for almost all tech-types.

Leo Laporte crowd surfs during Diggnation

alexalbrecht:

This is beyond EPIC, Leo is the man!

Having breakfast out with the kids

Out to breakfast with the kids. They are very impressed that they got travel coffee cups for their OJ.

Life's Cute Moments

There really isn’t anything much cuter than a 5 year old singing, “Hey There Delilah”.

Saturday at 6am, Son comes in the bedroom

Casey: Daddy, can you get up and come downstairs with me and I will play trains and you can do whatever you want.

Me: You got a deal, mister!

eTrade Commercials

Honestly, eTrade’s commercials were getting old to me but this new one was a nice return to form.

Broadband Speed

I’m amazed, I’ve never seen throughput levels like this before. I was so amazed, I double checked my speeds on speedtest.net.


That being said, go-go-gigabit to my doorstep please!

Berkeley Linux Users Group » Blog Archive » Why I don’t use Apple products

http://www.berkeleylug.com/?p=485

A very interesting argument against Apple. I still have mixed feelings about the companies direction despite using their products.

Giz Explains: How You're Gonna Get Screwed By Ebook Formats

Giz Explains: How You're Gonna Get Screwed By Ebook Formats

I really enjoyed this description on what ePub is and isn't. This is good to know in the coming eReader "wars".

Cisco unveils ultra-fast Internet technology - Mar. 9, 2010

New Cisco Router

I’m not sure it will ‘change the internet as we know it’ but it certainly allows a little room for growth in the future.

Real 3D

You can call what major motion picture studios and TV manufacturers are doing ‘3d’ but until you can accomplish what this guy did (on a standard LCD by the way) it just isn’t the real thing. This is how your eyes work, anything less is just trying to steal your hard earned money.

9 Ways To Handle Interruptions Like A Pro

Lifehacker: 9 Ways to Handle Interruptions

I need all the help I can get, so tips like these in this article can be very helpful.

Not A Subliminal Message

I think my five year old daughter is trying to tell me something. Wow, it starts early…she asked if we could hang it outside our house. I told her to send it to her grandfather.

Kindle DX for college texts

Tech Savvy Students <3 eReaders

This market for eReaders seems like such a no-brainer to me; the cost of manufacturing such low run text books is ridiculous, I always hated spending $80-$120 for a book that I would use for 4 months and then rarely would ever pick up again. I can remember always having a large backpack with 30 pounds of books slung over my shoulder, walking around campus. You bet, I would have been an early Kindle DX owner!

Pirate Ship

I wish I had pirate ship bounce-house to play on when I was a kid.

Stop making it complicated

Stop making it complicated!

All very good advice. I am currently reading “Getting Things Done” by David Allen, and will finish it despite this article so I can compare and contrast the two but I suspect it really does boil down to just making things simple and just doing.

Presentation Zen: Jamie Oliver calls for all-out assault on our ignorance of food

Jamie Oliver presents Food Education

The Naked Chef gives a presentation on food education. The wheelbarrow of sugar representing sugar in school milk was a great idea.

Nostalgia for The Goonies

I saw this interview from a few years ago about The Goonies and I just wanted to share it with everyone.

The Smurf Movie bags Neil Patrick Harris

Neil Patrick Harris agrees to Smurf movie
Say what??? A SMURF movie??? What???

People are hating on Flash!

Flash is leading security exploit

Eating 'Real' Food

CNN on 'Real Food'

Very interesting idea, my father always grumbled about this when I was growing up and it has only gotten worse now that I am a dad. Real food is so hard to find!

DRM is Broken

mnmal:

Why DRM doesn’t work.

All the old time readers know that I really really hate DRM. It just doesn’t work.

I don’t support piracy, that’s bad, but DRM is NOT the solution.

Modern News Sources

CNN on social media and news

More Americans get news from Internet than newspapers or radio, survey says.

How Sto Increase Their Focus

How to Help Your Focus

“There’s a really simple tip almost everybody can use to increase productivity tremendously. Not only is the tip free, it might even make you a bit of money. *And* it’ll make you smarter. It’s really easy, there’s only one step involved: Sell your TVs.”


(via mnmal)

Butterfest

Evidently the Dunkin’ Donuts kids think I’m an excessively heavy butter user with my bagel. I guess it is time to get back into that running regiment.